NY schools tackle enrollment slide

Rural schools in recent years have faced double trouble and its ongoing. A New York state school aid formula, which rural district administrators and others in education have so far unsuccessfully lobbied to change, penalize smaller schools in less wealthy areas, they say, due to a funding formula that takes into account factors such as tax base and enrollment. Meanwhile enrollment is shrinking.

A state senator in the Rochester/Finger Lakes region recently illustrated how one rural school district is doing more with less.

Sen. Ted O’Brien, D-Irondequoit, said his experience during a visit to a district in Ontario County played into his decision to join the majority of his fellow lawmakers in pumping an additional $1 billion in school aid into the final 2013-14 budget.

At Bloomfield Central School, “the superintendent has vice principals sweeping classrooms at the end of the day,” O’Brien said. “That is how committed he is to not cutting programs.”

When asked about his vice principals sweeping floors, Bloomfield Superintendent Mike Midey said his district is not alone in seeking ways to save money.

At Bloomfield, which has had to eliminate dozens of positions in recent years due to state aid cuts and rising costs, “it has affected every area, including administration,” he said. “We attempt to help our cleaning staff. It may be sweeping our offices, wiping tables. We are doing more with less.”

Educators and advocates agree politics and a slew of other forces are at play when it comes to school funding and its dynamics.

Small schools, big problems

Rural schools in recent years have faced double trouble and its ongoing. A New York state school aid formula, which rural district administrators and others in education have so far unsuccessfully lobbied to change, penalize smaller schools in less wealthy areas, they say, due to a funding formula that takes into account factors such as tax base and enrollment. Meanwhile enrollment is shrinking.

Statewide, school enrollments have been declining since 2001-02, according to the state Education Department, going from 3.3 million to about 3 million public and private school students. That's forcing administrators to mothball buildings and explore not only team, but entire district, mergers.

In January 2012, community leaders in the Finger Lakes region gathered to discuss the findings of a study on a potential shift to regional high schools that might help save money by combining school districts. With Ontario County’s school districts facing budget concerns, a potential shift to regional high schools could help save money by combining school districts, said representatives of the Center of Governmental Research.

Kirstin Pryor, CGR associate director, said the Department of Education and the Board of Regents are pushing for “new ways of doing business,” and creation of a regional high school would require approval by the Legislature.

Scott Bischoping, district superintendent at Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES, which promotes coordinating programs and services in the region’s rural school districts, said recently “there is no legislation which would allow for a regional high school. However, there are currently bills in the New York State Senate and Assembly; the outcome of these bills will determine further efforts towards a regional high school.”

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Pupils or politics?

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has told officials facing fiscal crisis that they should consolidate services of whole governments and school districts rather than look for relief from Albany. Cuomo said politics is standing in the way if mergers and consolidations that would save taxpayers money and improve efficiency of services.

For a regional high school, “it doesn’t make sense to jump into it,” Pryor said recently. The idea created a range of reactions from positive to negative, she said. In the end, districts showed they are willing to make some big decisions about how they do business, even if it doesn’t fit the regional high school model.

“Increasingly, leaders understand something has to give here,” said Pryor, likening the process of sharing programs and services to a romantic courtship. In initiating a relationship, you first have to ask, “do you want to date?” she said. You may get a range of reactions. Some school districts have made decisions already.”

New Vision

Bloomfield’s Midey said his district is sharing certain services to cut expenses and improve efficiency. That includes a move five years ago combining all age level lacrosse teams with those teams at neighboring Honeoye Central School. Bloomfield and Honeoye also share a director of instructional technology, through an arrangement with Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES, with one full-time professional spending half time in each district. Through BOCES, Bloomfield also obtains part-time occupational and physical therapy services.

That includes an agreement with Penn Yan Central School District in sharing a transportation director. A plan is also underway to move some office functions at Marcus Whitman to a central office at BOCES. With so much now of record keeping and exchanging electronic, such a plan makes sense, said Chirco.

On the academic side, a program called New Vision is helping rural districts, as well, said Chirco. For example, The New Vision Medical Career Program, which benefits Marcus Whitman students among others, is an educational partnership with Finger Lakes Technical and Career Center and Finger Lakes Health. It offers outstanding high school seniors from surrounding districts a total immersion approach to education, integrating English, health science, participation in government and economics into a curriculum where students meet daily at Geneva General Hospital. This approach is expanding into other fields as well, such as engineering, Chirco said. It is a method Chirco sees as becoming more popular as rural schools can’t afford to offer these high-level courses themselves.

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‘From here to there’

When CGR released the findings of the Ontario County Regional High Schools Feasibility Study, the biggest cost savings from a regional model was shown to be in staffing. CGR’s figures showed the current nine high schools had 460 teachers, with an approximate cost of $32.3 million. The regional high school model showed a potential saving of $4.2 million.

But those dollars are only a piece of the pie.

“It's clear that people want increased offerings, decreased costs and they want to keep their mascots,” Pryor said.

Chirco agreed. He said anxiety centers on questions such as, “what about our marching band, football team, school colors, what will you call the teams?”

In a recent discussion, Pryor said as districts begin to gradually make changes, like Honeoye and Bloomfield have done in combining lacrosse, they realize such changes are not only doable, but desirable.

“A lot is about people first doing more out of desperation,” she said, since moving toward a regional high school model is unknown and can seem scary. Examples of regional high schools exist on Long Island, “but they have been that way for decades,” said Pryor. But in the Finger Lakes region, she said, “we don’t have an example with education law or a community story of how we get from ‘here to there.’”

In to the future

The study reported 5,497 students enrolled in 9th-through-12th grades in all Ontario County districts; 2,788 of them completed the survey for an overall response rate of 51 percent. On key questions about a regional high school: 38 percent checked, “Horrible idea; I love my school the way it is;” 37 percent checked, “It would waste too much time to drive there;” and 32 percent checked, “Why would we want to do that?”

However, 35 percent checked, “Cool chance to meet new kids;” 23 percent checked, “I might have more choices for electives;” and 23 percent checked, “I might have more choices for clubs or sports.”

Laurie Riedman, a local schools advocate from Canandaigua and organizer with the independent Love Your Schools group, said “school mergers make economic sense.” For smaller, rural schools it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the demands of modern education, Riedman said.

While it is not likely that larger rural districts such as Canandaigua would ever merge, it benefits all districts to share programs and services where possible to provide the highest quality education, Riedman said.

As schools are forced to continue cutting each year, it has a cumulative and long-term effect because of how state funding works in New York, Riedman added. The state aid formula for a district takes into account what is in that district’s previous year’s budget, she said. So reducing a budget lowers what that district can reasonably request for aid the following year.

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“If we don’t look seriously at ways to make quality education affordable in New York, we will lose so much more,” she said. “Our children of today need more to compete.”

BOCES Superintendent Bischoping said the study was beneficial in being “able to take a closer look at what the regional high school model could offer students and school districts in Ontario County. There continues to be an ongoing conversation of ways to promote cost savings between districts, shared services and increased educational opportunities for students.”

Midey said overall he thinks “people are comfortable with their school districts.” The study provided a platform to begin making positive changes while keeping the best of what the rural schools offer, Midey said.